“Are you going to tell me why you came on your friend’s honeymoon?” Miriam didn’t pull any punches. Actually it reminded me of Flannery. And Kendra.
“I didn’t want to go back to work after their wedding.”
The twist of her mouth said she wanted more of an explanation.
“All righty then.” I took a deep breath. “We’re a family. Our little group. Flannery and Cain, Kendra, Adam and me. But they all stayed in Michigan while I moved to California.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
I shook my head and swallowed the delicious taco I’d ordered and taken a huge bite of. She was right. This place was great.
“I didn’t think so at the time. But the longer I stay there the more I hate it.” After a quick pause I added, “I’m thinking of quitting my job to move back and work for my dad.”
“I get that.” She shrugged. “It’s kind of funny actually, but my parents live just outside of Detroit.”
Wasn’t expecting that.
“Really?”
Miriam nodded. “I didn’t grow up there. After we moved back from Israel, we lived in Chicago. I loved it and that’s where I was discovered if you can call it that. So as soon as I graduated, I headed to LA and they moved to Michigan. I go back pretty often though, so it kind of feels like home.” She snorted. “Hey, maybe we were meant to meet.”
“Maybe…” I said but began thinking it might be true. And it freaked me out.
“Woah, pump the brakes on whatever’s going on in your head. I’m not suggesting we hit Vegas on our way home or anything.” Miriam chewed on the inside of her cheek before speaking again. “Is that why you looked like that on the plane from California?”
“You remember seeing me?” I asked. Of course, I’d remembered her and her laugh but she’d only seen me for a second.
“You’re hard to forget.”
“But no. That wasn’t about making a decision. That was about a massive hangover from the wedding reception.”
“Ah…” She nodded like she knew exactly what I meant.
“Yeah.” I sighed and sat back in my chair. “Did I look that bad?”
“You didn’t look bad…more like…you needed some sleep.”
Well, that was true as well. My head had been killing me but I also hadn’t slept much by the time she would’ve seen me.
“When do you leave?” I asked. The thought of her not being around made my stomach tighten. I hadn’t been on a real date in years, but this was a good one and the idea that this independent girl would be so far away didn’t make me happy.
“I have work through Saturday, and I always schedule a couple of extra days when I go somewhere awesome. It’s wheels up Tuesday morning.” Which only gave us five days before she went back and left me. Four days I’d have to fill on my own after. That’s when I realized I planned on spending as much time with her as I could until she left.
Chapter Five
We walked back to the hotel slowly, falling into a comfortable silence in between making small talk. Miriam slipped her hand into mine so seamlessly that it felt natural. I threaded our fingers together and held tightly. Something else I hadn’t done in a really long time. I started to think I might be fucked when it came to this girl. The silver lining as far as I could tell was that we only had five days together. Chances were we wouldn’t run into each other back in California before I moved home.
“Are you close with your family?” she asked.
I nodded. “Embarrassingly close. My parents are great and my three younger sisters are a headache, but I love them.”
“Wow. Three younger sisters?”
I nodded.
“I just have a brother,” she said. “Older. He always has my back no matter what. Which is needed when you move from one country to another.”
“He lives in Detroit, too?” I slowed our pace. We were making too good of time for my liking.
“No. He stayed in Chicago since he already had a job.” She paused for a moment. “I think I would have liked to have sisters.”
“Not mine.” I snorted. “Do you like living with all those roommates?” Miriam smirked and rolled her eyes making me chuckle deeply. “Then you probably wouldn’t like to have sisters.”
“OK…maybe one. Older. Who could have saved me a lot of time by teaching me hair and makeup, and about boys.”
Unfortunately, no matter how much I shortened my steps or how many turns I took, we were still back at the hotel too soon. As the man my mother raised, I walked her to her room on the second floor. Two floors beneath me.
Jesus.
When she came to a stop at her door, I wanted to make sure she got in ok, I told myself. Nothing more.
“Thanks for dinner.” She smiled up at me, big, bright, genuine.
“Thanks for picking the place. Might be the best tacos I’ve ever had.”
“I eat there several times when I’m here. Keeps me real,” she added trying to bite her lips together to keep a smile at bay while referencing what I said about her when we first met.
I couldn’t stop mine so instead I shook my head and looked away.
This time an uncomfortable silence hung over us. This was a date, right? I hadn’t really been on one of those in a really long time. Sure, I grabbed a bite here and there with whoever I was hooking up with at the time but those weren’t dates. That was having dinner with a friend before having hot sweaty sex. Man, I didn’t want those thoughts in my head right then.
“Sam.” She looked up at me through those soft lashes. “The question of the night is will I be seeing you again before I leave? Assuming you don’t leave before me.”
“I don’t.”
“So…”
Fuck, I hadn’t answered her.
“Yeah. If you want to.” Holy shit I wasn’t sure when I turned into a sixteen year old doofus again. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“You seem to say that a lot.” Miriam again tried not to smile. The little side pucker to her lips gave her away as did the way her brown eyes danced with humor.
“For some reason nothing I want to say to you comes out right.”
“Try again.” This time she allowed a grin to grow. Miriam had this really innocent look about her but the playfulness hid right below the surface if anyone paid attention. She wasn’t that innocent.
“I’d like to see you tomorrow.”
Her smile grew bigger.
“I think I can arrange that.”
Miriam turned away to unlock her door as she rattled off her schedule so I’d know when we could meet. I just had to come up with a great plan for us. As I was about to say goodnight and get the hell back to my own room because this entire scenario made me jumpy, the tilt of her shoulder kept me in place. I don’t know why.
And fuck I was glad I did.
Turning back to me, Miriam set a hand on my shoulder and used it for leverage as she pushed up onto her toes. Then her lips touched mine. The moment I felt her satin soft skin against me, I was really glad she’d made the decision for me because I hadn’t planned on doing it.
I wrapped my left arm around her waist, lifting her just enough so she wouldn’t have to stretch.
Her hands clasped the back of my neck, fingers brushing the nape. Her small touch shot to my dick. But when her lips opened and nibbled on my bottom one, I realized I wasn’t kissing her back the way I knew I could.
Yet I wasn’t about to take this to the “I’m going to fuck you against the door” level kiss. My mouth stayed soft against hers. She met me with a gentle nip in return.
Everything a first kiss should be.
Everything a first kiss once was for me and the realization freaked me the fuck out. So even though it went against everything running through my body, I put an end to it.
Then immediately regretted it.
“Night, Sam,” Miriam said softly before I let her back down onto her own feet.
I couldn’t speak. It sounds lame, but I couldn�
�t get my voice to work so I nodded instead and waited for her to get inside safely.
When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I thought about was how much I liked that Miriam kissed me first. When I rolled over to check my phone, I couldn’t help but smile when I found a text from her already waiting. Apparently, another model cancelled so her agent called her and she picked up two more shoots for the day, one being a commercial. Meaning that she’d be done much later than expected. Well after dinner.
I sent her a text back letting her know I could work with that, unless she’d be too tired. Almost immediately she replied saying she wouldn’t be.
Fortunately, I had the entire day to figure out something great to do with Miriam. Unfortunately, I had the entire day to think about what I wanted to do and it wasn’t PG-13.
I finally showered and left my room around lunch time because I needed to eat. I could have ordered in but I didn’t come to Hawaii to be a hermit. Plus I found Flannery and Cain lounging on the outdoor patio of the restaurant. Cain called out to me while waving me over as soon as I stepped in the place.
“How’d it go?” Flannery barely let me get into the chair across from them.
“What?”
“Ha. You don’t do stupid that well, Sam.”
“I don’t know about that. I’ve seen him do stupid really fucking well,” Cain countered with a smile.
I replied to Cain with my middle finger.
“Oh and tell me about your date slowly. I’m keeping Kendra in the loop,” she said waving the phone in her hand.
“You know you all fucking suck, right?”
“I’m ok with that.” She shrugged.
“I’m really ok with that,” Cain said smugly. I knew where his mind went. And Flannery knew, too because she smacked his arm.
“Don’t listen to pervy over there. It’s just…you don’t date. Yet you did. Do you like her? Did you kiss her? I want details but not the gross ones.”
“There aren’t any gross ones to give.”
I caught the surprise that crossed Cain’s face, but he didn’t say a word. I loved my chosen family yet sometimes I hated that they knew me so well and in his case, too well. There were things they had no idea about. Except for Cain. I’d known him long enough that there wasn’t a secret between us.
“Fine,” Flannery sighed the word out. “Can you at least tell me if you’re seeing her again?”
I had to think about that one since I didn’t know how much I wanted to give them. Then again these were my people, and it’d been a long time since I’d truly liked someone the way I did Miriam. Since someone affected me the way she did. My stomach hadn’t tightened so much since high school. My heart tapped against my chest faster when I saw her. It’d been so long that I kind of didn’t want to hide it.
And I didn’t care if that made me sound like a pussy.
“Tonight. She’s working late and I don’t want to just take her to dinner. Not sure what I want to do.”
“Been a while since you dated,” Cain stated the obvious causing my jaw to clench as we fell into an intense stare down.
“My favorite dates were the ones where we stayed in.” My gaze left Cain and snapped to Flannery. “Watching a movie and having pizza in his room. Best way to get to know each other in my opinion.”
“I love you, Flannery,” I said while hopping up, dropped a kiss on the top of her head and tore out of there like I’d forget the idea before I could act on it. I needed to clean my shit up in my room.
Just before six I sent Miriam a text saying to meet me at my room whenever she got done and added my room number. I knew her room number, but she didn’t know mine.
Then I waited.
At almost eight a soft knock tapped against my door. So light I almost missed it.
“Sorry. We ran late,” she said out of breath as soon as I opened the door. Miriam stood before me in a loose skirt and a pale tank top. It made her skin look even more tanned. Damn.
“Not a problem.” I’m surprised I could speak. I hadn’t been tongue tied since middle school.
She raised her eyebrows. “Uh…so are we going out?”
Apparently I really was turning into a fucking moron because I hadn’t moved out of the doorway so she could come in.
“No. Actually I thought we could hang out here. Rent a movie, order some pizza.”
She groaned letting her head fall back, and my lips itched to trace up her newly exposed neck, my tongue wanted to taste her.
I needed to get a fucking hold of myself.
“That sounds like heaven. I’ve been on the go all day.”
Now I did move so she could come in.
After dropping her purse on the table near the door and kicking her shoes off, she climbed up on the huge bed in the middle of the room. Holy shit. I thought we’d move the chairs around or something, but I wasn’t about to complain.
Miriam insisted on placing our pizza order, so I let her.
We flipped through the movie selections before deciding on one. As the opening credits started, I offered her a drink from the minibar.
“Do you have any idea how expensive those things are?” she asked pointing at the array of beverages arranged in the mini fridge.
“I know the cost,” I said with a laugh. “Do you want a drink or not?”
“Not for eight bucks I don’t.” She folded her arms under her breasts.
“Miriam, I asked you out. We’re staying in. Would you be complaining about the price if we were at a restaurant?”
Her lips puckered as she rolled her eyes. “I’ll have a soda.”
I tried to pull back the grin slowly breaking out across my face but it was no use. I grabbed her pop, a water for me then took a seat next to her on the bed.
When the pizza arrived, I paid and we dug in right away. She didn’t sit and pick at her food like some girls. I always had a hard time believing that in our modern world girls still felt the need to do that. But we ate and laughed at the same parts of the movie.
Just feeling her move beside me when she readjusted on the bed was enough to send all blood rushing south.
It was nice to just be together, no pressure.
The next day we took a look at her schedule so we could spend as much time together as we could that week. We went to a movie, ate dinner in my room two more times and spent a couple of hours at a bookstore where Miriam took time picking out a stack of books.
Something to do on the planes she said.
As we left the bookstore, I took her hand in mine as we walked to the hotel. Miriam glanced over at me with a cocked head and a raised eyebrow.
I knew what she was thinking.
I didn’t initiate contact in public much but I couldn’t not be touching her.
On Sunday, we spent three hours on the beach.
“You need help with that?” I asked as she rubbed sunscreen onto her arms.
“Isn’t that cliché?”
“I’m being serious. You won’t be able to reach your back.”
Miriam sighed then tossed the sunscreen my way.
I took my time rubbing small dollops over her shoulders and down her back. We’d only kissed a couple of times. I mean really kissed. Not that quick peck bullshit I did when I dropped her back at her room. But this intimate touching sent all my blood rushing south. Exactly what I didn’t need.
Thankfully, I dropped back onto my own towel soon after.
“What’s tomorrow look like?” I asked.
“Mmmm…” She tapped her chin like she needed to think about it. “I’m free until dinnertime.”
“You work late?”
“Yeah. Sunset creates a nice backdrop I guess. Photographers love it.”
“Then we can do something in the morning?”
Miriam nodded.
What haven’t you done here that you’ve always wanted to?” I asked.
“Let me see…I haven’t been bungee jumping or parasailing. I’ve gone snorkeling but it didn’t g
o well, so I want to try that again one day.” Unscrewing the cap on a bottle of water, she paused to take a drink. “There’s always the drug culture in the more seedy neighborhoods. I’ve never taken part of those.”
“I think that’s enough options.” I tossed my shirt in her face. “And I’m ruling the last one out. You should, too.”
Miriam’s giggles were a thing of beauty. It wasn’t supposed to be sexy. A laugh could be dangerously sexy but a giggle should be annoying. On her…it wasn’t.
The next morning I stayed around the hotel, having breakfast in the restaurant near the lobby. I planned to be alone but wasn’t upset when Cain and Flannery joined me either.
“Haven’t seen much of you,” Cain said kicking my foot under the table.
“You’ve been busy,” I replied with a raised eyebrow.
“You’ve been busy.” He smirked at me. The fucker smirked at me to let me know he’d noticed the time I spent with Miriam.
“Fair point.”
“You’re both ridiculous,” Flannery said after a large yawn. “What’re you doing today? I think we are going to hit one of the other islands, right?” She glanced at Cain who nodded his head. “You should come with us.”
“Can’t.” I didn’t bother trying to swallow the huge fork of eggs I’d just shoved in my mouth. “Got plans.”
“With?” she asked, one corner of her mouth raising half an inch and one eyebrow shifting up word.
“Miriam leaves tomorrow. I’m meeting her in an hour.”
“Hmmm…” Flannery tapped a finger against her chin. “Meeting Miriam…is it serious? Should we be planning a wedding?”
“Knock it off,” I said back. “She’s a chick I can stand. There aren’t that many around so I’ve been hanging out with her to pass the time while you two…well, do whatever the fuck it is you two do. Would you rather I spend all my time with you? I didn’t know you had that kink, Flannery.”
“Knock it off,” Cain said with a sigh.
“No, it’s ok.” She smiled and put a hand on his arm. “Can’t poke the bear without expecting to get nipped.” She let him go then leaned across the table a little. “She and I have had coffee a few times this week. I like her. Please don’t scare her away.”
Up for Everything (Up for Grabs #3) Page 4